Lazy Sunday

The PaGyver Pack stopped by to play with fire and make some serious headway on the wet room.  MacGyver has more detailed updates but has inhaled a prodigious amount of tar (or Gypsy Den grog) and seems to be making a slow start today.

Last Sunday was particularly cold and we decided to give the fireplace a shot.  I was pleased at the amount of scrap shop and yard wood we were able to dispose of in the process.  I started stacking scraps on the side door staircase leading up to the living room in readiness for the next fire.  By the end of the evening, we had a slightly warmer, slightly smokier front room.  GrandEpics suggested a grate to improve air circulation, so I ordered one on Amazon that rotates the burning space 45 degrees so much of it rests on the back wall instead of the ground.  This should route smoke further up the chimney and expose more hot cinders for heat.  We shall see.  Cleaning up was pretty easy.  I read chickens will sometimes roll in ash as a way to smother parasites in their feathers so I dumped the remainder in their coop instead of experimenting with the trapdoor into the unfinished basement.


The hen house is doing well.  The chickens are big enough to sleep outside instead of needing to go into a dog carrier on the front porch.  They developed a taste for spent brewing grain, so MacGyver indulged them by brewing a replacement batch yesterday.  They looked so cheated when I checked on them that morning I tried letting them sift through the most "done" worm bin.  I'm not sure if they've figured out worms are edible yet as there were still plenty when I took the bin out this morning.  We will need to go snowboarding and reprovision in NorCo soon because they are running low on straw and eat a lot of chicken feed.  I did order some grain seeds which could be used alternately for feeding chickens, people, or beer.  Those will take a long time to grow and probably not support hen appetites though.

The main purpose of that seed order was rhubarb which GrandEpics say makes great pie...  If you're willing to wait the 2 years for the stalks to get established.  The timing should be just right for us as we don't really have an oven to bake said pie in right now anyway.  We do, however, have an awesome diy magnetic spice rack.  The lids turned out to be press on when I was hoping they'd screw on, so there were a few spills.

Also looking forward to a few major appliances.  I ordered a compact dishwasher that needs to be shipped by freight because our counters are too low to accommodate a standard sized one.  We also got a pretty competitive quote for furnace and A/C plus removing all the asbestos duct work, so we'll schedule that as soon as MacGyver saves China and can get off mandatory over time and do whatever prep to be ready for them.